The University of Malta,  US Embassy  &  Malta Enterprise Seminar on:

Background

In March 2009 the University of Malta and the Embassy of the United States of America signed a memorandum of understanding for Malta’s participation in the new “Ambassador’s Scholar” programme.    Under this program, the Embassy of the United States of America and the University of Malta will nominate one U.S.  academic from a post-secondary U.S. institution as “Ambassador’s Scholar” each academic year. The Ambassador’s Scholar will serve as an expert consultant on curriculum development, programme design, continuing professional education and/or a special project with the University of Malta’s various faculties/ departments. Within this context, the University of Malta via the Department of Industrial and Manufacturing Engineering has nominated Prof. John Gershenson, from Michigan Tech University to serve as “Ambassador’s Scholar” in the domain of Lean Manufacturing. Through this agreement, Prof. Gershenson will be visiting the University of Malta in November 2009.  One of the primary objectives of this visit is that Prof Gershenson becomes familiar with local manufacturing industry. Consequently, he will be in a better position to understand typical challenges that the Maltese Manufacturing Industry is facing at the product development level.  This knowledge will help him outline where Lean Principles can be exploited.  As a result, a half-day Seminar entitled “Enhancing Maltese Industrial Competitiveness Through Lean Principles” will be held on Friday 20th November 2009 to allow industrial stakeholders to learn through case-studies about lean manufacturing principles and to allow them to come forward with typical product development issues/challenges during an interactive session. Being fully aware that Lean Manufacturing is a key to increasing quality, decreasing costs, improving delivery, and increasing agility for many manufacturers worldwide, this initiative is keenly supported by the Malta Enterprise to help raise this awareness with relevant policy makers and industrial stakeholders. Further details on the half-day Seminar can be found here.

Professor John Gershenson

John K. Gershenson Ph.D., is a Professor of Mechanical Engineering and Manufacturing/Industrial Area Director at Michigan Technological University (MTU). Dr. Gershenson is a graduate of Cornell University and The Ohio State University and holds a doctorate in Mechanical Engineering from the University of Idaho.   Professor Gershenson performs research in the areas of product and process architecture and lean and sustainable design and manufacturing.  Specific research interests include, product family platforming, product and process modularity, assembly systems platforming, and lean engineering.   Dr.

Gershenson has worked closely with industrial input to develop courses in design and manufacturing including the large capstone design program at MTU and a course in Life-cycle Engineering. He has also developed the Lean Leadership Laboratory, an industrially funded suite of courses and on the job experiences for engineering students. Dr. Gershenson has been honored with the SAE Ralph R. Teetor Educational Award, National Science Foundation / Lucent Technologies Industrial Ecology Fellowship, ASME Leadership Development Award, the National Science Foundation Japan Institute Fellowship, and many Who’s Who lists in finance and industry, science and engineering, and education.  He is currently an Associate Editor of the Journal of Mechanical Design and has served as the vice-chairman of the design theory and methodology committee within the ASME’s Design Division, as Conference Chair for the ASME IDETC conference in design theory and methodology, and has been a reviewer for the Shingo Prize for Manufacturing Excellence.